Skipping Milazzo

It's sunrise and we've got our first look at Milazzo. It is rather industrial looking around the port. There are fish farms, fish processing plants, power plant and many large ships anchored. The tide (current) flowing through the Straits of Messina is strong and it's important for us to go with it. We calculated that if we just kept going this morning the tide would be right with us in the straits. So, goodbye Milazzo!

Leaving Palermo

We plan to depart Palermo today, Saturday and head East across the northern coast of Sicily. Our tentative plan right now is to stop at a little town called Milazzo. This is the last bay before the Straits of Messina. We will anchor out and get a fresh start in the morning for the passage of the straits. We want to be fresh for this passage in case we encounter the Hydra Scilla or the whirlpool Charybdis in the straits. These are just legends of course (Mom) but it's good to be prepared. Ask Homer if you would like more information about the hydra and whirlpool.
Our next port will be Taormina a little bit South of the Straits. Taormina is an ancient Roman-Greek temple site. Charlie has an assignment to do some photography work there.

Sardenga by Train

Don and I took a train ride from Cagliari up to Sassari on the island of Sardenga. It was a great chance to see the countryside and made for a good adventure. The train system was really nice and on time. We made it to the station early in the morning with over a minute to spare before the train left. We rode for about three and half hours each way and got a chance to walk around Sassari and grab some lunch.
The island of Sardenga offers quite a bit of variety from low country plains and farmland to some fairly rugged mountainous regions. This place is dry dry dry. All of the farms had some form of irrigation. There were large structures out in the farmland that we finally figured to be water tanks. There is a lot of drip irrigation and some spraying.
It appears that workable farmland here is created through lots of hard work. The native land is very rocky. We saw some fields in various stages of preparation for becoming a plantable field. The rocks were gathered up and placed in big piles around the field. Most of them ended up being used to build fences. As more rocks are cleared enough grasses will grow to allow sheep and goats to thrive. As more clearing is done and more rocks moved the soil appears to get to a point where it can support crops. Most of the fence lines dividing farm plots are rock walls. I guess you have to put them somewhere.
The first few clips of the train ride we are riding through olive country and you will see rows of olive trees. We picked up some of the best olive oils I have ever had at the market in Cagliari. Last night I fixed us some olive oil and garlic pasta that was yummy. I'm glad we don't have to meet closely with anyone today...
The movie below is not particularly exciting but it gives some good glimpses of what Sardenga looks like. I try to make my "home movies" somewhat interesting or no one would ever watch. Enjoy!

New anchorage in Sicily

We just threw out the anchor in a nice little anchorage off the coast of Sicily. We spotted the lights of Sicily around midnight last night. The northwest coast of Sicily is just beautiful. There are very large majestic cliffs along the edge of the ocean. We pulled into a little cove a bit west of Palarmo, Sicily. We only plan to stay here one night and move over to Palarmo in the morning.
The pictures are a sunrise shot of the coast of Sicily followed by a view of some of the cliffs. Note the small lighthouse buildings at the base of the cliff and the walls built behind it to protect it from falling rock. The last shot is of the shoreline from our current anchorage. Check out the walls up on the point of the cliff. They are actually the support for a road that winds its' way to the top. This is a busy little place with a lot of recreating going on around us. Boats are coming and going in the anchorage and wind and kite surfers are zooming all around. Hopefully it will settle down a bit tonight!

Leaving Sardenga

We plan to leave Cagliari, Sardenga Monday morning. There are good strong winds from the West right now which will be good for this particular crossing. We plan to head to some port in Sicily next. I am not sure exactly where we will end up but it is about 200-300 miles so it should take us 2-3 days of sailing.
I got a little frustrated with the lack of wifi around here. I finally found some. I am sitting on the steps of a big beautiful church during Sunday evening service. Hopefully it will be better in Sicily.

Ceuta to Ibiza

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We left Ceuta on Independence Day. The wind was blowing hard, over 30 knots from the West. The marina was sheltered from the West wind and as soon as we popped out into the Straits it was blowing like a big dog. There were white caps as far as you could see. This is the winds we were hoping for but did not get on our way into the Straits. In fact, we got just about the opposite winds.

We left the marina at the same time as couple that we met from California. Jim and his wife Janie were on the Jungle and heading to Smir for the next night so they were turning South around the tip of Morocco and we were heading Northeast up into the Med. If you look closely in the first picture you can see Jungle off our stern.

This part of the sail was the point at which we had our last chance to get a photo of the “classic” profile of the Rock of Gibraltar. All of the other pictures I was able to take were of the “back” side.  Obviously, we were at the wrong angle now and we never did get that Prudential-made-famous shot of the Rock. Oh well, I did throw in a photo of our last glimpse of the African coast.

The strong winds from the West were a great direction for us and the first day offered some exceptional sailing. Much of the day we were making a VMG over 9 knots. That is some serious speed in the right direction. We were feeling really great about our situation when the sun went down. Not too long after that the wind died completely. We still felt good, we just had to motor. We saw some beautiful sunsets over the mountain of the Spanish coast.

It took us a little over two days to get to our next port. We first sighted the island of Formentera in the Balarec Islands at sunrise. We were still motoring at this point and kept going around the Western side of the island. Formentera has a very low, flat geography with no mountains and the sea is typically met with either beaches or rocky outcroppings. There is one major city on Formentera (Formentera) that is kind of an artsy community with a lot of hippie-types hanging around. We avoided going into town at all on this stop. What I heard about the community is all hearsay, I have not been there. 

Technically speaking, we did not stop at the island of Formentera either. The very North end of the island is a very narrow strip of land that floods during high tide separating it from the tiny island of Espalmador. We dropped anchor in a bay off Espalmador about mid-morning. 

Our anchorage is a beautiful little place that is getting too popular for its’ own good. As the day progressed more and more boats began to fill in all of the empty spots in the bay. Soon it was very crowded around us with sailboats, powerboats, commercial catamaran rides, jet skis and all manner of paddle vessels. The bay is half moon shaped with a beautiful white sand beach. The bottom of the bay is white sand and seagrass. There is only one set of buildings on Espalmador at the far end of the beach. It is some kind of a small resort. The rest of the island is very natural.

Besides the absolutely beautiful setting one of the big draws to this particular cove is the mud. A short walk over the dunes brings one to a large wetlands area. The wetlands are somewhat tidal but there really is no standing water to speak of. To me it looked like a big green mud field. It is said to be rich in nutrients and minerals from evaporating sea water which gives it a green tint. 

People come here to get in the mud and cover their bodies with it. Supposedly it is good for the skin, etc… whatever, I was not falling for it again this time. Many visitors get in the mud and slather their whole bodies with this green muck and then let it dry. The view of the beach from the anchored sailboats is one of naked green people strolling the beach. Eventually the mud would dry and harden up and they would jump in the water to get cleaned up again.

Speaking of naked people... There seems to be a plethora of clothing-challenged folks here. I think they probably put most of their money in their million dollar yachts and did not have enough left over for a swimsuit or at least not a whole one. Charlie and I considered organizing a telethon for them but soon thought better of it as we had no phone. We decided just to live with it.

We stayed in the anchorage at Espalmador for two nights. The next island up in the Balarecs in Ibiza. The day sail up to Ibiza was beautiful. The Southern end of Ibiza has towering sheer rock cliffs dropping straight down into the water. The waterway was very busy with recreational boaters, guided tour boats, big party catamarans, tall square-rigged ships and of course the fast ferries. This passage was where I took the previously posted video of the fast ferry.

We bypassed Ibiza City and headed up the Western coast to a city known as San Antonio. It is the second largest city on the island. We needed to re-supply and it’s a good place to get anything you need. The harbor at San Antonio is huge and we anchored way out. We never did nail down good Internet access on the boat, even with our wifi harvesting equipment.

The island of Ibiza is a party tourist destination for many young Europeans. San Antonio seemed to attract the British youth in droves. We arrived on a Saturday and went into town to get some Indian food.  It was pretty much just crazy. The party kids were all decked out in “club ware”. We figured out that one of the big clubs in Ibiza City was having a Zoo Party, I think it was actually at the Zoo but I’m not sure. 

Don had to go find some postcards or something so Charlie and I sat to wait for him. In this town there is only one place you can go to catch a cab and it is always a big line of people. Charlie and I were watching people file into this line for the cab ride across the island for a Zoo party or other clubbing events. You would have been amazed to see what the outfits were like. 

The girls were frequently painted up like animals and wearing maybe a whole swimsuit or a miniskirt. Many of the guys showed up for the line in gym shorts and a pair of flip-flops. Charlie and I must be getting old. We could not imagine going out dressed in only a pair of shorts or a bikini to ride across an island in a taxi to a big city, party all night long and find your way back home around sunrise. I mean, where did they keep their money? Oh well, not our problem but it was great people-watching.

Late one afternoon we were sitting in the cockpit enjoying the harbor traffic coming and going. We noticed some hotshot coming down the channel of the harbor under full sail. Then he tacked back across the channel heading for the anchorage. Then he gybed back across the channel still making great speed and we began to wonder where he was heading. I was thinking I had a good video opportunity coming up.

With considerable remaining momentum he doused the sails (good crew) then reversed back up into the channel and was now heading for the marina. We thought he must have his engine on by now because he was still moving. The momentum was still carrying him along. Soon we saw a dinghy coming out to him from the marina. The dinghy captain tied lines in a bridle fashion on the bow of the sailboat and eventually wrestled the vessel into a waiting slip. It was a very impressive show and quite a nice service that the marina supplies for boaters who lose their engines.

A great contrast to the British party kids in San Antonio is found not far away. The second night we were heading into town for some food and decided to go to the other end of the harbor. There is a small peninsula that juts out into the harbor kind of separating the commercial side from the residential side. We tied the dinghy up on the more residential side and walk up the hill a bit. We began to hear somewhat familiar music and a crowd was gathered. In a small outdoor amphitheater a gentleman was on the stage with a little electronic organ and a microphone. It was one of those fancy keyboards that plays the cheesy accompaniment music along with you. We arrived to “Tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree”. It was great to hear that old tune being sung in broken english and seeing the crowd enjoy it so much. 

Ceuta scenes

Here are a few pictures from our visit to Ceuta. We stayed in a very nice marina with great sunset opportunities. I cannot confirm this 100% but in the mornings it appeared there was a dusting of snow on the mountain tops (Monte Hacho) we could see from the marina. The second picture captures the view of the snow. It was relatively cool at sea level and I suppose it is possible that it actually was snow but it just seemed a little too surreal for some reason. However, as the sun came up the snow would appear to melt and the color of the mountains would change. We figured it was either snow or some trick of light playing off the rocks of the mountain.

The city streets and public areas in Ceuta are all clean and well maintained. There were crews of sidewalk sweepers out all the time. They used hand-woven straw brooms to do the sweeping. The sidewalks were tile or marble and there was considerable artwork and statues placed around the city. Many of the staircases and walls were obviously very old and constructed with solid masonry techniques. The area is heavily influenced by both Islam and the Catholic faiths. Artwork influenced by Islam is found very close to Catholic shrines. It was an interesting mix.

In the very center of town there is a huge stone fort. A water channel flowed from one side of the peninsula to the other through the moat of the fort. I did not get a chance to take a tour of the fort but from what I could tell it was a very impressive structure.  I included a few photos of the moat and the walls of the fort.

The water flowed out of the fort area to the sea on the southern edge of Ceuta. There is a nice beach area all along the southern boundary. As you followed the beach further to the West it transitioned into the beaches of Morocco. The beaches were all very clean and well maintained. During the day they were quite busy, the pictures I took were at sunrise so there was not much activity yet. 

As we went through the central market we met a spice vendor. He was selling a variety of spices from all over and his booth smelled fantastic. I spent some time sniffing around and could not resist taking a picture of the colorful curries and spices he had for sale.

There is a serious Hercules theme going on in Ceuta. The marine we stayed in was the Hercules Marina. There was more than one statue of Hercules around town. To me it was a bit of a curiosity. One of the plaques I read summarized the story of the Pillars of Hercules. 

According to some Roman sources Hercules was on his way to the island of Erytheia and had to cross the mountain once known as Atlas. Instead of crossing over the mountain, Hercules used his super-human strength to split the mountain in two. This split opened the Straits of Gibraltar connecting the Atlantic ocean with the Mediterranean Sea and the two remaining mountain remnants are known as the Pillars of Hercules. The northern Pillar is Gibraltar and the southern pillar on the African continent is Monte Hacho in Ceuta.

Plato is credited with writing that the lost city of Atlantis lay beyond the pillars of Hercules (again kids, don’t use this in your book reports). The pillars apparently bore the warning “Nec Plus Ultra” - or Nothing Beyond Here. They served as a warning to sailors to go no further out into the Atlantic ocean. We obviously choose to ignore this warning now.

Near tragedy delayed

We used what I believed to be the last of the peanut butter last
night. Yet this morning there was a new full jar in the galley. It was
either a miracle or Don was holding some back. Every one we ask about
finding peanut butter says something that sounds like "good luck".
Could someone coming to visit fom America bring a jar of peanut
butter, per favore?

Made it to Sardenga, Italy

We docked safely this morning in Cagliari. It is the capital city of
Sardenga and a fairly large city. We went walking through the city
today looking for lunch and the train station. So far, I am not
impressed. The harbor is a dirty mess and the streets around the
harbor are not much better. There are many beggars and street
salespeople.
Spanish does not work here much better than English. I was unsure of
the menu at lunch and It's possible that I had a horsemeat burger. But
the fries were good. I think we are going to ride a train tomorrow.
For some reason I feel drawn to find a rodeo.
We have no Internet again. I carried the computer all through town
with no luck. I am posting now with my Kindle. (thanks Amazon).

Leaving Spain today, heading to Italy

The weather has cleared for our departure from the port of Mahon. This
is our last Spanish port. We plan to make Cagliari, Sardenga, Italy
our next port. It is about 260 miles from here so it will take us
about two and a half days. Cagliari is on the Southern end of
Sardenga. We decided to head South to avoid the possibile Mistral
winds coming out of France. We hear they can get pretty nasty.
Watch for our Spots!

In Mahon, Menorca

We have anchored safely in Mahon and will be here for at least a couple of days. The passage over from Mallorca was uneventful and the wind was even better than we expected.  Because of the better winds we started getting too close too fast and decided to slow down because it was still well before sunrise. Around 2 AM we pulled in most of the sails and slowed to about 2 knots. The wind was on the beam and we had some small rolloers coming from the starboard side. After we slowed down, the boat lost the momentum to carry it smoothly through the rollers and we started getting some unplesant rocking side to side with each roller. For me this made sleep improbable. Oh well, plenty of time to sleep later.
Last night at about 6 or so the wind shifted to the Northeast just like the weather preditions said it would. I guess there is a first time for everything. That wind shift was our first taste of the Mistral winds of the Med. They came up fast and strong. We knew they were coming and our anchorage was well protected from the Northeast. It was a little chaotic in the anchorage becasue all of the anchored boats all swung around on their anchors at the same time and we got a chance to see how well everyone did at guessing good anchor drop points. By dark it had cleared out pretty well with only 10-15 boats around us with plenty of space.
We are anchored a long way from town now and there is no Internet at the boat. We took the dinghy in this morning and it was about a 45 minute drive and still windy. My posts will be limited for a few days. We plan to stay until we get a weather break. It looks like there are more Northeast winds on the way. Our next target is the Southern part of Sardenga. We decided to hit the South end first to try to avoid more of the Mistral winds coming off the coast of France.  Our crossing to Sardenga will be at least three days. I'll try to post when I know we are taking off.

Friday night in Porto Colom!

We were on the boat last night trying to decide what to do for dinner. Soon we heard the sound of distant music coming across the water and we knew our destiny was sealed. We hopped into our trusty dinghy in search of the music source. We discover the source was a big party going on in a city square surrounded by eating establishments. There were a couple of blow-up rides for the kids and a music stage all ready to go.

We sat down at a Chinese restaurant table and ordered some food to wait for the show to begin. Gradually more and more dancers of various ages began to show up. It looked like we were in for quite a treat. As you can see in the video the Porto Colomians really know how to party! The place was packed with people and everyone brought the kids. 

There was a giant blow up play thing for the kids that had the head of Homer Simpson designed with a moving jaw so it could eat small children. It kind of make you wonder about what they think of American culture.

One gentleman, who I believe was the father of one of the dancers was walking near the edge of the dance floor when a lady (possibly his wife) chased him down with a paper bag and gave it to him. He checked out the bag and shook his head "no" and became visibly distraught. She shook her head "yes" and with a hang-dog look he walked off with the bag.

The gentleman reappreared soon in a Michael Jackson outfit. He took the floor to a great round of applause and the crowd really got into his MJ dance routine. He did not look much happier leaving the floor than he did when he opened the bag. Ah, the things we do for love....

Moving on to Menorca

We will be pulling up anchor today and head up to the next and last island in the Balarecs. The island is called Menorca and the port we are targeting is Mahón. The winds look great for the next couple of days coming out of the South to Southeast. This will be perfect for our track over to Menorca. It's 50-60 miles from where we are now to Mahón so we will leave late afternoon and sail through the night so we show up in daylight. If we leave here too early this morning we would end up having to enter the port in the dark.
There is some controversy about the spelling of Mahón. Some people spell it Mahón or Mô and our charts show it using various spellings. However you spell it the place looks fantastic on the charts. It is a long natural cala that is open to the Southeast. It has a great reputation as one of the best harbors in the world. When asked to name the three greatest harbors in the world, Lord Nelson of Great Britain responded "Mô, Maó and Mahón!"
This is a picture of the chart of Mahón. You can see how well protected it is.

Yes, I am a salty dog.

Yes, I'm fond of salt. From the sea, in the sea or into meal preparation, I like the salt. We were driving around Mallorca yesterday and I was navigating from the back seat. I'll post more pictures of our trip soon but basically this place is pretty dry. Much of the countryside ground is a very dry and rocky and it must be hard to grow anything. We saw a lot of dry riverbeds and the only bodies of water we saw were man-made reservoirs high in the mountains. Crops were growing only where some form of irrigation in place.

In the Southeast corner of the island there was a little blueish spot marked "wetlands". I doubted very much that they were the kind of wetlands that we know of in Florida. I navigated us to go check them out because I suspected something even better. Sure enough, where the map said there would be wetlands we began to see glimmers of sunlight reflecting off slivers of water. I kept my eyes peeled and soon enough I found my target. It looked like big piles of snow over by the wetlands. We pulled into the Salines d'Es Trenc salt plant. 

The wetlands were indeed wetlands, but it was a well managed flow of seawater. The seawater was gradually flowed from field to field and more and more of it evaporated. The gradual evaporation and movement of higher and higher concentrated water into different zones enabled workers to harvest the salt from the sea. In the plant they cleaned it and refined it for human consumption.

The plant had a nice little gift shop that sold very expensive salt samples and other salty-themed goods. Of course I got swept up into the whole salt-buying frenzy around us. I selected a fine little can of "gourmet" salt for 10 Euro and was milling around the check-out line when my good friend Charlie used some subtle verbal judo to slap me upside the head. His comment was something like "Gosh, they should at least put a tarp over the big piles of salt out back if they are going to charge that much for a handful."

After a moment of hesitation followed by clarity I set the can back on the shelf. I decided that whatever they were selling out in the vending machine would be just great. Not to mention that I have never bought anything in a salt vending machine before. Come to think of it, I've never seen a salt vending machine before. So I got a couple Euro from Charlie and ended up getting a free kilo of salt, fresh from the sea!

Landed in Mallorca, again

We arrived on the island of Mallorca at sunrise this morning. I sent a Spot out that we had anchored pretty early. We were in a little cala that I do not know the name of and were anchored for a little while. We hoped to just tie up at the fuel dock and find out if we could get a slip after we re-fueled. Unfortunatley the fuel dock had some boat tied up there so we had to anchor out. It was quite windy and bumpy in the anchorage area and our anchor would not hold. We could feel it slipping across the rock bottom. As we were examining our options with the slipping anchor, the boat that was blocking the fuel dock pulled out.
We slid right into the dock and got a little nap in waiting for them to open up. They were supposed to open at 10 AM local. It was kind of a weird little cala and seemed really industrial/mechanical. To me, it did not have a real good "vibe". That's just me I guess. But, as it happens we decided to pull out and go somewhere else. We left that dock at about 0630Z and started sailing around the North east side of Mallorca. With Charlies' input and experience, we selected a cala that was about 20 miles away as our target.
We started with a great wind direction and a good sail until we began to turn the corner. As we started to go more North up the east coast the wind was right on our nose again. We cranked up the engine and motored the rest of the trip.
The wind was strong from the North and there was a plethora of sailboats coming from the North going downwind. When I say plethora, I mean we thought there was a regatta going on or something because there were so many boats going South past us. We ended up anchoring in the bay of Porto Colom at about 1300Z and the wind is good, the sea is still and it's a nice little place. We have neighbors from France, Germany, Spain (of course) and three boats from the US.
It looks like Porto Colom has the facilities we need (mainly laundry) and everything else. I think we are going to try to rent a car to drive around and explore Mallorca tomorrow. I expect we will be here a couple of days at least. On the hook and safe again!

Leaving Cala San Vicente, Ibiza

It's 1300Z and we are pulling up the anchor in San Vicente. Our next port of call is not known for sure but it will be on the island of Mallorca. It will be 40-70 miles depending on where we hit land. We will sail through the night and arrive sometime in the morning tomorrow, Wednesday.
It looks like it's going to be a motor sail unless something changes dramatically with the wind situation. 

Our short visit to Tericeria, Azores

We only spent one night on the island of Tericeria. The port city is named Angra do Heroismo. The city has a much bigger feel than does Horta, Faial, the last city we visited. The downtown area has many shops featuring higher-end shopping and it is considerably larger than Horta. There is more traffic and generally feels bigger, busier and more modern. We did not make it out of the city and did not see the rest of the island. When you look at the picture of Herosimo, the light colored roofs are all the new ones that have been replaced since the last earthquake.

I ran across a boat that I had never seen before in the maria and had to post a picture for my boating friends. It was a inboard engine inflatable raft. You just don't see that every day.

We arrived on a Friday which happened to be the first day of a festival weekend. I never quite was able to catch the name of the festival or what it was all about. Many of the downtown streets were decorated with signs and lights. As we walked around during the day it seemed the city was preparing for something really big. There were sound stages set up at various locations and trucks with loudspeakers and bull paintings on the side driving around announcing something. I think the something was the location of the Truada da Corda - the bullfight on a cord event. 

The bullfight in the street was held in different locations though out the region each night during the season. I guess the truck with the loudspeaker and the bull paintings on the side was how the word was spread. We stopped by a tourist information place to see if we could firm up the actual location. They had a printed sheet with approximate locations for each night. 

We did a recon mission in the late afternoon to make sure we knew where we needed to go. I’m glad we did because it made us feel a lot better, however, we were completely wrong. It turned out to be one of those language barrier things again. 

Fortunately we met a nice couple in the marina from Great Britain. John and Laura were on the final leg back home to Great Britain on the Rainmaker. They had been traveling for about 2 years and seemed ready to return home. John had a solid lead on where to go for the bullfight and how to get there so we joined forces and headed out as a big team with John taking the role of Chief Navigator.

The walk to the location of the bull fight was all up hill. We passed through downtown and entered a botanical garden in the center of the city. It is a massive, winding garden with stairways and sidewalks going every which way. We kept heading up and up. We finally got to the exit and there was a tall skinny pyramid tower-like structure at the very peak. It was quite an impressive structure. The location of the bullfight street was not too far from here. 

We could see a flow of people walking in the general direction we were heading. It was basically a residential neighborhood that happened to be selected for the location of the bullfight. Everything looked normal as we approached until you looked closely. The knee-to-hip level walls separating the street from yards were all extended with add-on wood fences. Any of the metal fences that had the spiky tops were covered with wood forms, I’m guessing that is for someone needing to make a quick jump from the bull. 

We were hanging out at the first gathering of people we ran into which happened to be the very beginning of the bull run. Soon a flatbed truck with four large steel containers arrived and a truck-mounted crane began unloading the containers. We are not that perceptive as it turns out. Each container contained a bull. The bulls did not seem particularly happy to be there. 

We decided the best course of action would be to move upstream a little bit more. (After some helpful hints and pointing from our new friends from the bull farm) I got a good picture of a young bull fighter who was helping with the unloading process. 

As we walked uphill a bit more looking for a safe place to watch from we went past a fountain flowing from a sidewalk sculpture. It was a lion’s head with a flow out of its’ mouth into a little catch dish. We noticed There was quite a crowd around the fountain and people were filling their plastic cups from it. Somehow the lion was now spewing beer from its’ mouth and everyone was excited to help the beer not go to waste. The fountains producing beer may help to explain the jubilant atmosphere surrounding the bull-on-a-rope event.

Many vendors walked the streets hawking their wares. One of the popcorn and candy vendors had a particularly colorful display.

Not far past the beer fountain we ran across a big steel gate leading to a courtyard packed full of people. When we arrived there were television cameras filming interviews of a bunch of guys sitting at some tables up front. It turns out that the guys were like real bull fighters and what we would consider to be national heros. The crowd was all gathered in the private home courtyard of one of these people and they seemed happy to have a crowd around so we all joined in. Charlie happened to meet the son of the owners of the house and he invited us to stay so we felt quite welcome.

When the flares went off signifying the release of the bulls the steel gates closed and we ended up with great “seats” right behind the steel gates. We were very safe (I felt) behind the steel fence as the bulls passed by us. 

After the bull event we headed back into downtown. By this time the festivities were real starting to heat up. We ran across a crowd following a group of singers and guys playing some instruments. They had gathered at the steps of a church in a semi-circle. The gents with the guitars formed a ring behind the singers who took turns singing a slow ballad-type song solo with a very light background music. It was not a happy dance type of festival, it was more somber and slow. We all enjoyed the event and followed the crowd down the street to the next stop. They began the same routine and the same set all over again. We decided to get some food.

John and Laura joined us for dinner at a nice steak place in downtown. After dinner we wandered back towards the marina and through all of the street festivities. The streets were now lit and people were beginning to come out. The area around the marina was full of activity and vendors were selling food and drinks. The band was not scheduled to start for another hour or so and I decided to hang it up. From the boat, I heard the band crank up about an hour later and as it turns out, it was the same guys we had followed on the street. Only this time each solo was longer, like way longer. Each singer was given 20-30 minutes for their solo. Although I still did not understand the language, I could tell it was not a happy tale they were telling. 

I hope that this singing was the beginning of a long story that would be shared again over the course of the festival. I also hoped that eventually There would be a happy ending to the tale…